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THE PRESIDENT'S LETTER TO THE HON. JAMES C. CONKLING. 



Executive Mansion, 
Washinglon, Aug. 26, 18G3. 
Hos'. Jamks C. Coxklixg : 

Mv Demi Sir: Your lotter, inviting me to 
attend a mass meeting of Unconditional Union 
men, to be held at the capital of Illinois on 
the 3d day of September, has been received. 
Itwould be very agreeable to me to thus meet 
my old friends at my own home, but I cannot 
just now be absent from this city so long as 
the- visit there would require. The meeting is 
to be of all those who maintain unconditional 
devotion to the Union, and I am sure my old 
political friends will thank rae for tendering, 
as I do, the nation's gratitude to those other 
rioble men whom no partisan malice or parti- 
san hope can make false to the nation's life. 

There are those who are dissatisfied with 
me. To such I would say. You desire peace, 
and j-ou blame me that we do not have it ; but 
how can we attain it? There are but three 
conceivable ways : First, to suppress rebellion 
by force of arms. This I am trying to do. 
Are you for it ? If you are, so far we are 
agreed. If you are not for it, a second way is 
to give up the Union. I am against this. Are 
you for it? If you are, j'ou should say so 
plaiul}% If-you are not for force, nor yet for 
dissolution, there only remains some imaginary 
comprotnise. I do not believe any compromise 
embracing the maintenance of the Union is 
now possible. All I learn leads to a directly 
opposite belief. The strength of the rebellion 
is its military— its army. That army domi- 
nates all the country and all the i)eople within 
its range. Any offer of terms made b}' any 
man or men within that range, in opposition 
to that army, is simply nothing for the present, 
because such man or men have no power 
whatever to enforce their side of a compromise 
if one were made with them. 

To illustrate : suppose refugees from the 
South and peace men of the North get together 
in convention, and frame and proclaim a com- 
promise, embracing a restoration of the Union, 
in what way can that compromise be used to 
keep Lee's army out of Pennsylvania ? Meade's 
array can keep Lee's army out of Pennsylvania, 
and I think can ultimately drive it out of ex- 
istence ; but no paper compromise to which 
the controllers of Lee's array are not agreed, 
can at all affect that army. In an effort at 
sujh compromise, we should waste time which 
t!ie enemy would improve to our disadvant- 
age, and that would be all. A compromise, 
to be effective, must be made either with those 
who control the rebel army, or with the peo- 
tile, first liberated from the domination of that 
aimy, by the successes of our arm}''. Now, 
allow me to assure you that no word or inti- 
mation from that rebel army, or from any of 
the men controlling it, in relation to any peace 
compromise, has ever come to my knowledge 
or belief. All charges and intimations to the 



contrary are deceptive and groundless; and I 
promise you that if any such proposition shall 
hereafter come, it shall not be rejected and 
kept a secret from you. I freely acknowledge 
myself the servant of the people, according to 
the bond of service — the United States (,'onsti- 
tution — and that as such I am responsible to 
them. 

But to be plain, you are dissatisfied with me 
about the negro. Quite likely there is a dif- 
ference of opinion between you and myself 
upon that subject. I certainly wish that all 
men could he free, while I suppose you do not; 
yet I have neither adopted nor proposed any 
measure which is not consistent with even 
your view, provided you are for the Union. I 
suggested compensated emancipation, to which 
you replied you wished not to be taxed to buy 
negroes. But I had not asked you to be taxed 
to buy negroes, except in such way as to save 
you from greater taxation to save the Union 
exclusively by other means. You disliked the 
emancipation proclamation, and perhaps you 
would have it retrhcted. You say it is un- 
constitutional. I think differently. I think 
the Constitution invests its Commander-in- 
Chief with the law of war in time of war. 
The most tlfat can be said — if so much — is 
that slaves are property. Is there, has there 
ever been, any question that by the law of war 
property both of enemies and friends may be 
taken when needed ? And is it not needed 
whenever taking it helps us, or hurts the 
enemy? Armies, the world over, destroy 
enemies' property when tliey cannot use it, 
and even destroy their own to keep it from 
the enemy. Civilized belligerents do all in 
their power to help themselves or hurt the 
enemv, except a tew things regarded as bar- 
barous or cruel. Among the exceptions are 
the massacre of vanquished foes .^nd non-com- 
batants, male and female. But the proclama- 
tion, as law, either is valid or is not valid. If 
it is not valid, it needs no retraction. If it is 
v^alid, it cannot be retracted, any more than the 
dead can be brought to life. L^ome of you pro- 
fess to think its retraction vi"ould operate favor- 
ably for the Union. Why bettor af/er the retrac- 
tion than before the issue ? There was more 
than a year and a half of trial to suppress the 
rebellion before the proclamation issued ; the 
last one hundred days of which passed under 
an explicit notice that it was coming, unless 
averted by those in revolt returning to their 
allegiance. The war has certainly progressed 
as favorably for ns since the issue of the proc- 
lamation as before. I know, as fnlly as one 
can know the opinions of others, that some of 
the commanders of our armies in the field, 
Avho have given us our most important suc- 
cesses, believe the emancipation policy and 
the use of colored troops constitute the tieavi- 
est blow yet dealt to the rebellion, and that at 
least one of those important successes couW 



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not have been achieved when it was, but for 
the aiii of black soldiers. Amonfj the com- 
ninnders holding these views arc some who 
have never had any affinity with what is called 
Abolitionism, or with Republican party poli- 
tics, but who hold ihcra purely as military 
opinions. I submit these opinions as being 
entitled to some weight against the objections 
often urged that emancii)ation and arming the 
blacks are unwise as military measures, and 
were not adopted as such in good faith. You 
siiy you will not fight to fr- e negroes. Some 
of thoni seem willing to light for you. But 
no matter ; fight you, then, exclusively to save 
the Union. I issued the proclamruionon pur- 
pose to aid you in saving the Union. When- 
ever you shall have conquered all resistance 
to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue 
lighting, it will be an apt time then for you to 
declare you will not fight to free negroes. I 
thought that in your .straggle for the Union, 
to whatever e.xtent the negroes should cease 
helping the enemy, to that e.xtent it weakened 
the enemy in his resistance to you. Do you 
think differently? T thought that whatever 
negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves 
just so much less for white .soldiers to do in 
saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise 
to you ? But negroes, like other people, act 
upon motives. Why should they do anything 
for us if we will do nothing for them ? Jfthey 
stake their lives for us, theymust be prompted 
by the strongest motive, even the promise of 
freedom. And the promise being made, must 
be kept. 

The signs look better. The Father of Waters 
again goes unve.ved to the sea ; thanks to the 
great Northwest for it. Nor yet wholly to 
them. Three hundred miles up they met New 
England. Kmpire, Keystone, and Jersey, hew- 
ing their way right and left. The sunny South, 



too, in more colors than one, also lent a hand. 
On the spot, their part of the history w.as jot- 
ted down in black and white. The job was a 
great national one, and let none be banned 
who bore an honorable part in it. While those 
who have cleared the great river may well be 
proud, even that is not all. It is hard to sav 
that anything has been more bravely and well 
done than at Autietam, Murfreesboro', Gettys- 
burg, and on many fields of lesser note. Nor 
must Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten. At 
all the watery mtrgins they have been present; 
not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and 
the rapid river, but also up the narrow" mud- 
dy bayou ; and wherever the ground was a lit- 
tle damp they have been, and made their tracks. 
Thanks to all for the great Republic, for the 
principle it lives by and keeps alive — for man's 
vast future — thanks to. all. 

Peace docs not appear so distant as it did. I 
hope it will come soon, and come to stay, aiid 
so come as to be worth the keeping in all fu- 
ture time. It will then have been proved that 
among free men there can be no successful 
appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that 
they who take such appeal are sure to lose 
their case and pay the cost. And then there 
will be some black men who can remember 
that with silent tongue and clenched teeth, 
and steady eye and well-poised bayonet, they 
have helped mankind on to this great consum'- 
mation ; while I fear there will be some white 
ones unable to forget that with malignant 
heart and deceitful speech they have strove to 
binder it. Still let us not be over-sanguine 
of a speedy, final triumph. Let us be quite 
sober. Let us diligently ' apply the msans, 
never doubting that a just Gpd, in His own 
good time, will give us the rightful result. 
Yours, very truly, 

A. LINCOLN. 



BY THE PRESIDEiNT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

^ i*rocla.m:a.tion. 



r, Abkaiiam Lincoln, President of the United 
States uf America, and comniander-iu-chiet of 
the array and navy thereof, do hereby proclaim 
and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the 
war will be prosecuted for the object of prac- 
tically restoring the constitutional relation be- 
tween the United States and each of the States 
aud the people thereof, in which States that 
relation is or may be suspended or disturbed. 

That it i.f my purpose, upon the ne.xt meet- 
ing of Congress, to again recommend the adop- 
tion of a practical measure tendering pecuniary 
aid to the free accept;uice or rejection of ail 
slave States, so called, the people whereof may 
not then be in rebellum against the United 
States, and which States may then have vol- 



untarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarilv 
adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of 
slavery within their respective limits; and liiat 
the elfort to colonize persons of African descent 
with their consent u|)on this continent t)r else- 
where, with the iircviously obtained consent of 
the governments existing there, will be con- 
tinued. 

That on the first day of January, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand eight hundredand 
si.xly-three, all persons held as slaves within 
any State or designated part of a State, the 
people whereof shall then be in rebellion against 
the United S'.ates, shall be then, thencefor- 
ward, and forever free; and the Executive 
Government of the United States, including 



the military and naval authority thereof, -will 
recognize and maintain the freedom of such 
persous, and will do no act or acts to repress 
such persons, or any of them, in any efibrts 
they may make for their actual freedom. 

That the Executive -will, on the first day of 
January aforesaid, by proehimation, designate 
the States and partsof States, if any, in which 
tlie people thereof, respectively, shall then be 
in rebellion against the United States ; and the 
fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall 
on that day be, in good faith, represented in 
the Congress of the United States by members 
chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority 
of the qualified voters of such State shall have 
participated, shall, in the absence of strong 
countervailing testimony, be deemed conclu- 
sive evidence that such State, and the people 
thereof, arc not then in rebellion against the 
United States. 

That attention is hereby called to an act of 
Congress entitled " An act to make an addi- 
tional article of war," approved March 13, 1862, 
and which act is in the words and figures fol- 
lowing: 

'■'■Be it enacledbti the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives of the United States of America in Con- 
gress assembled, That hereafter the following 
shall be promulgated as an additional article 
of war, for the government of the army of the 
United States, and shall be obeyed and ob- 
served as such: 

'• Article. — All officers or persons in the 
militarv or naval service of the United States 
are prohibited from employing any of the 
forces under their respective commands for the 
purpose of returning lugilives from service or 
labor who may have escaped fiom any persons 
to whom such service or labor is claimed to be 
due; and any officer who shall be found guilty 
by a court-martial of violating this article shall 
be dismissed from the service. 

'• Sec 'i. And be it further enacted, That this 
act shall take effect from and after its passage." 
Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an 
act entitled '• An act to suppress insurrection, 
to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and 
confiscate property of rebels, and for other 
purposes," approved July 17, 1862, and which 
sections arc in the words and figures following: 
'•Sec 9. And be it further enacted, That all 
slaves of persons who shall hereafter be en- 
gaged iu rebellion again-., the Government of 
The United Siates, or vvho shall in any way 
give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such 



persons and taking refuge within the lines of 
the army ; and all slaves captured from such 
persons or deserted by them, and coming un- 
der the control of the Government of the Uni- 
ted States ; and all slaves of such persons 
found on [or] being within any place occupied 
by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by 
the forces of the United States, shall be deem- 
ed captives of war, and shall be forever free of 
their servitude, and not again held as slaves. 
"Sec. 10. And be it further enacted. That no 
slave escaping into any State, Territory, or the 
District of Columbia, from any other Stiite, 
shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded 
or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or 
some offence against the laws, unless the per- 
son claiming said fugitive shall first make oath 
that the person to whom the labor or service 
of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful 
owner, and has not borne arms against the 
United States in the present rebellion, nor in 
any way given aid and oomfort thereto; apd 
no person engaged in the military or naval 
service of the United States shall, under any 
pretence whatever, assume to decide on the 
validity of the claim of any person to the service 
or labor of any other person, or surrender up 
any such person to the claimant, on pain of 
being dismissed from the service." 

And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all 
persons engaged in the military and naval ser- 
vice of the United States to observe, obey, and 
enforce, within theirrespective spheres of ser- 
vice, the acts and sections above recited. 

And the Executive will in due time recom- 
mend that all citizens of the United States 
who shall have'renuiined loyal thereto through- 
out therebellicn shall (upon the re storation of 
the constitutional relation between the United 
States and their respective States and people, 
if that relation shall have been suspended or 
disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts 
oftheUnitedStates,including the loss of slaves. 
In witness whereof, 1 have hereunto set my 
hand, and caused the seal of the United States 
to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington, this 

twenty-second day of September, in 

the year of our Lord one thousand 
L^" ^- eight hundred and sixty-two, and uf 

the Independence of the United States 

the eightv-seventh. 

ABRAHAM LL\COLN. 
By the President: 

WiLLiA.\i H. Seward, Secretary of State. 



BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Whereas, on the twenty-second day of Sep- 
teml)er, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundied and sixty-two, a proclamation 
was issued by the Presiduut of the United 



States, containing, among other things, the fol- 
lowing, to wit : 

'•That on the first -day of January, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 



and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves 
■within any State or designated part of a State 
the i)eople whereof sliall then be in rebpllion 
against the United States, shall be thcncefur- 
waril, and forever, free; and the Executive 
Government of the United Slates, inchiclin<»- 
the railiiary and naval aurhority thereof, will 
recognize and maintain the freedom of such 
per.-ons, and will do no act or ads to repre^^ 
such persons, or any of them, in any efforts 
they may make for their actual freedom. 

•• That the Executive will, on the first day of 
January aforesaid, by proclamation, desio-nate 
the States and part? of Stales, if anv, in which 
the people thereof, respective) ly, shall then be 
in rebellion against the United States ; and the 
fact that any State, or the people thereof, sball 
on that day be in good faith represented in the 
Congress of the United States, by members 
chosen thereto at elections wherein a majoritv 
ot the qualified voters of such States shafl 
have participated, shall in the absence of stroufr 
countervailing testimony, bodeemcdconclusivc 
evidence that such State, and the people thereof 
are not then in rebellion against the United 
States." 

Now, therefore, I, Abrah.vm Lincoln, Pres- 
ident of the United States, by virtue of the 
power m me vested as commander-in-chief of 
the army and navy of the United States, in 
time of actual armed rebellion agninst the au- 
thority and Government of the United States, 
and as a fit and necessary war measure for 
suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first dav 
of January in the year of our Lord one thoti- 
sand eight, hundred and si.xty-three, and in 
accordance with my purpo.-^e so to do, publiclv 
proclaimed for the full period of one hundred 
days iro.m the day first above mentioned, order 
and designate as the States and parts of States 
\yherem the peonle thereof, re.-^pectivelv are 
this d:iy in rebellion against the United bt'ates, 
the loliowing, to wit: ^ 

Arkansas. Texas, Louisiana, (except the 
pan.shes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jeffer- 
son, St.. John, St. Charle.^, St. James, Ascen- 
sion, As.-;umpt;on, Tcrre Bonne, Lafourche, St 



Mary, St. J 
city of Nc' 
Florida, G( i 
lina, and \ 
counties dc; 
also the conn 
ampton, Eliz: 




012 



and Nurfolk, .....u^umg the cuies' of Norfolk 
and I oriMuouth,) and which excepted parts 
are for the present left precisely as if this proc- 
lamation were not issued. 

And by virtue of the power and for the pur- 
pose aforesaid, I do order and declare tlii.t all 
persons held as slaves within said desionuted 
States and parts of iStates.are, and liencelo°rward 
shall be, free ; and that the E.xecutive Govern- 
ment of the United States, including the mili- 
tary and naval authorities thereof, will recoo-- 
nize and maintain the freedom of said person's. 
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so de- 
clared to be free to abstain from all violence 
unless in necessary self-defence: and 1 recom- 
mend to tbein that, in all cases'when allowed 
they labor faithfully for reasonable Avages. ' 
And I further declare and make known that 
such persons, of suitable condition, will be 
received into the armed service of the United 
States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and 
other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in 
said service. 

And ui)on this act, sincerely believed to be 
an act of justice, warranted "by the Constitu- 
tion upon military neces-ity. I Invok-e the con- 
siderate judgment of mankind, and the gracious 
iavor of Almighty God. 

In witness Avhereof, I have hereunto set my 
hand and caused the seal of the United States 
to be aflB.fed. 

Done at the city of Washington, this first 
day of January, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hniidrcd and 
[l. s.] sixty-three, and of the Independence 
of I he United States of America the 
eighty-seventh. ^ 

ABRAHAM LLNX'OLN. 
L>y the President: 

William H. Sewaud, Secretary of Stale. 



TPIE POLICY OF THE WAR. 

Exlmdjrom President Lincoln s Message, December I, 1862 



The dogmas of ihe quiet past, arc inadequate 
to liie .-tormy present. 'I he occasion is piled 
liigU with difficulty, and we must rise with the 
oecamon. As our case is now. so we must 
think anew, and act anew. We must disen- 
thrall our.;elve.s, and thea wo shall save our 
country. 

Fellow-citizens, toe cannot escape history. 
We of this (.'ongress and this administration 
Avill be remembered in spite of ourselves. No 
personal s gnifieanco, or insitrnificance can 



We sail we arc for the Union. The wor.'d will 
not forget that we say this. Wo know how to 
save the Union. The world knows v.e do 

know how to save it. We— even ve here 

hold the power, and bear the res])onsibility. 
In giving freedom to ih<i nhive, wc assure free- 
dom to the /)w— honorable alike in what we 
give, and what we preserve. Wo'shal! noblv 
save, or meanly lose, the last be^t hope of 
earth. ^ Other means may succeed ; this cou'd 
not fail. The way is plain, jjf^aceful. generou.- 






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